This invention relates to improvements in a cylinder device of the type including a stopper section for stopping a relative sliding movement between a housing and a shaft (rack bar) extending through and slidably movable in the housing at a position where the sliding movement terminates, for example, a power cylinder of a power steering system, and more particularly to the improvements in technique of the stopper section.
Hitherto a variety of such cylinder devices have been proposed and put into practical use. One of them is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-3368 relating to a rack-and-pinion steering gear. In this rack-and-pinion steering gear, a socket for a tie rod is connected to an end section of a rack bar (slidable shaft) under being screwed in, in which a stopper member is incorporated to buffer contact between the socket and the end section of a housing. The stopper member is constituted of a metal ring having an opening to be mounted on the threaded section of the socket, and an annular elastomeric member fixed to the metal ring at an outer peripheral side facing the rack bar. This stopper member is incorporated and fixed in a state where the inner peripheral section of the metal ring is put between the end face of the rack bar and the end face of the socket at a screw-in joint. The metal ring is provided with projections which are to be engaged with radial cutouts formed at the end face of the rack bar so that the metal ring is prevented from its rotation.
However, in the above conventional cylinder device, the stopper member is incorporated and fixed in the state where the inner peripheral section of the metal ring is put between the end face of the rack bar and the end face of the socket at the screw-in joint as discussed above, and therefore the length of the cylinder device is unavoidably increased by an amount corresponding to the thickness of the metal ring. This enlarges the size of the cylinder device while providing considerable restriction in designing the cylinder device.